Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Stephen Webster, Senior Editor at RawStory.com, discusses the WikiLeaks-revealed diplomatic cable that shows how the US got troops stationed in Colombia by dodging legislative review; close cooperation between the US embassy and then-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez to escalate the US military presence (that regional rival Venezuela viewed as war preparation); how the mainstream media proves its worthlessness by refusing to properly investigate the gold mine of WikiLeaks revelations; evidence of State Department lobbying on behalf of US corporations and lobbies including the MPAA and Monsanto; and why net neutrality and internet freedom remain under threat (to the delight of China-admirer Joe Lieberman).

New York Times recommended the coffee region in Colombia to tourists. I just spent 3 months in el eje cafetero, the coffee region in Colombia and I can recommend it. Go to Risaralda, Anserma, San José in Caldas. That´s the best of Colombia in my view. Anyway, the main problem in Colombia is that the super-rich don´t pay any taxes. El Espectador wrote that former president Uribe paid 0.4 % in tax. Less than &frac12; % ! And he has a lot of land also. If all the super-rich in Colombia hardly pay any tax at all, the people will remain very poor and even starving sometimes. Colombia is not a poor country but the very rich hardly pay any tax at all. The second problem is the insane satanicos in AUC and FARC. But the root problem is still that the rich hardly pay anything at all.

On the plane was a Canadian mining engineer who had worked all over Colombia. He told me that many US cities are more dangerous than Colombia. But the coffee-region, mainly the counties of Caldas and Risaralda is where one finds the original Colombia. Actually, Anserma was founded before Bogotá. Anserma is a pleasant business city of 80.000 inhabitants where coffee farmers are coming. Very nice, down to earth people. I met a guy from Miami, he preferred to live in Anserma. I understand him. It´s more quiet and pleasant. But that´s the coffee region.

@Hamle: Thanks for the travel tip, but your analysis of Columbia's "problem" is as shallow as it comes.
We might think that if only everyone paid a 100% tax rate life would be perfected by the well-funded (if not actually omniscient) government. The "problem" (and I know nothing of Columbia) is far more likely to be just the opposite – the poor pay too much tax and the rich are too-well subsidized.

@Net neutrality: monopolized industries all begin by excess regulation of something we mistakenly believe is a "common good". Law will not make the ideally neutral net. You will have to buy the level of neutrality you prefer. TANSTAAFL.